62 LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 



any gun in the whole lot that would shoot. We had to pick in dry powder 

 ana it was with much difficulty that we cleaned our guns out and put dry 

 loads in. If the Indians had known the advantage they had of us they 

 coulJ have shot us full of arrows and we couldn't of helped ourselves. It 

 was only our good luck that saved us and not good sense or good man- 

 agement. 



In the summer of fifty, in Mariposa County, there was a company of 

 a hundred volunteers raised to go out and fight Indians. They went up into 

 the mountains and built a log fort and were camped there, having a good 

 time and had the Stars and Stripes flying over the fort. One morning the 

 flag was missing and in scouting around some of the soldiers (if you can 

 call them such) saw an Indian streaking it through the woods with the flag 

 wrapped arcund him. That was too good a joke on them; in fact they were 

 called in and discharged without killing or capturing a single Indian. When 

 we returned to camp, we were pretty near ready to leave as the mines there 

 were no good. 



There was one little incident that might he worth mention. I was out 

 prospecting and as I was going along a dim trail I came around a sharp 

 turn and came upon a California lion lying asleep in the shade of a tree. 

 Another step and I would have been onto him. It's useless to say that he 

 got away from there in a hurry, but it is only to show the wild life of the 

 early Pioneer. I could mention scores of such incidents that we never took 

 any notice of. While on Woods Creek, very early one morning; in fact, it 

 "was hardly light, I went to the creek only a few rods away, for a pail of 

 water. I saw a dark object near where I usually went for water and on 

 little closer observation, I observed it was a dead Indian. He, no doubt, 

 had gone there for a drink of water and had gotten his head into the water 

 and was unable to get out again. The water was only four inches deep, 

 and there I had the opportunity of witnessing another Indian funeral, but 

 this time there was no cremation and very few mourners. They went at it 

 more in the shape of business. They undertook to dig a grave up on the 

 bank, but soon struck hard bedrock at each end of the grave, but the middle 

 was softer and they proceeded to make that part of the grave deeper. The 

 consequence was when they put the Indian in, his head and feet only 

 touched. But they did not let a small matter like that balk them in the 

 least. I was wondering what they would do next, when three of them stood 

 on the middle of the dead body and jumped up and down a few times, and 

 got him broke down into the hole sufficiently to get him covered over with 

 dirt. 



On my arrival in Stockton from the mines; in fact, the first day there, 

 I witnessed the hanging of Mickey Free, for murder, and a short time after 

 there was another hanging bee, this time for horse stealing. This time the 

 victims were Mountain Jim and Dutch Fred. Either of them would have 

 weighed over two hundred pounds, but the gallows withstood the strain, 

 contrary to the opinion of a great many. It is alarming how reckless some 

 men can live even to the last moment; for example: Mountain Jim ven- 

 tured to make a speech and was granted the privilege. He stated he had 

 never harmed any one, had swiped a few horses at different times and that 

 ■was all. He insisted on placing the rope around his own neck, but that was 

 not granted. When all was ready, he says, "here we go pals, 'round and 



